Sunday, March 9, 2008

Naval Academy Charges Cadets With Rape and Child Porn.

The United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland announced Friday, 7 March 2008, that two upper-class midshipmen have been referred to an Article 32 Investigation on charges including child pornography and rape:

* Midshipman 1st Class Michael Pollard, a senior, faces charges of attempting to distribute child pornography, obstruction of justice, possessing pornography in Bancroft Hall, making a false official statement and obstructing justice, and receiving and possessing child pornography, said Naval Academy spokeswoman Jennifer Erickson. The alleged incidents occurred between July 2003 and August 2007, according to an Annapolis statement.

Midshipman Pollard’s hearing is scheduled for March 24, and Midshipman Calvanico’s is March 28. Both Article 32 Investigations will be conducted at the Washington Navy Yard, in Southeast Washington,DC, near Fort McNair.

On Friday Apr 25, 2008, it was revealed that Midshipman 1st Class Michael S. Pollard will face a general court-martial more than a year after another midshipman allegedly found child pornography on his laptop computer.

At the Article 32 hearing, Midshipman 1st Class Mikoto Yoshida testified that the found a video file titled “Boy Party,” of “two naked adolescent boys moving toward each other,” and fan fiction accounts of sexual encounters between the three brothers on the television show “Malcolm in the Middle” on Pollard’s computer when he logged on to watch a television show during a class break.

Yoshida, who shared a suite with Pollard and three other midshipmen, testified that he consulted with two of the roommates before going to his class officer to report what he found.

Pollard’s computer was seized later that day. An agent from a private forensics laboratory testified that he found evidence of several hundred pornographic images of prepubescent boys on it, and on another computer than Naval Criminal Investigative Service agents took from Pollard’s mother’s Apopka, Fla., home.

Homosexual Senior Navy Midshipman Michael Pollard was sentenced to six years in the brig, with one year suspended under a pre-trial plea bargaining agreement, for child pornography after his court-martial conviction on 4 August 2008.

Cadet Pollard says he was afraid to seek help for his sexual addiction.

The Article 32 was held at the same location where 1st Class Midshipman Lamar Owens, the former star quarterback at Annapolis,was charged last year with - and later acquitted of - raping a fellow midshipman in her barracks room. While not convicted of the rape, Owens was convicted of two lesser counts: conduct unbecoming an officer (for having sex in the dorm) and disobeying a lawful order (for having contact with the accuser). However, the jury recommended that Owens receive no punishment.

The female midshipman testified 22 April 2008 that Midshipman 3rd Class Mark Calvanico raped her in her dorm room after he had been drinking.

Midshipman Mark Calvanico is accused of rape, making a false statement to investigators, conduct unbecoming an officer and unauthorized absence.

The woman, who is in her second year at the academy, testified at the Article 32 hearing at the Washington Navy Yard.

The woman said Calvanico, whom she described as an acquaintance, forced himself on her in October 2007 after making a third visit to her dorm room after midnight. She testified that she told Calvanico to leave her alone, but he wouldn’t listen.

“He was drunk, and he was very forceful,” she said.

The woman testified that Calvanico pinned down her arms during the assault. She paused and wept several times during her testimony and struggled to describe details of the incident.

“He raped me,” she said under questioning. “I mean, what do you want me to say?”

Calvanico’s lawyer, Michael Waddington, argued there was no evidence of “forcible rape” and that his client simply wanted to “schmooze his way into a make-out session” with someone who had expressed romantic interest in him.

“It’s our position there was no intercourse — no intercourse, no rape,” Waddington told Lt. John Clady, the investigating officer in the case who is assigned to issue an opinion on whether the case should proceed to a court-martial.

The accuser’s roommate testified that Calvanico visited their room five times that night, but that her roommate had left the room after his third visit, when the attack is alleged to have occurred.

She said Calvanico and her roommate had a burgeoning romance that they were concerned violated the school’s fraternization policy.

The roommate said she was half asleep with her back to Calvanico and her roommate at the time the attack is alleged to have happened. She said she didn’t hear yelling, but that she heard her roommate tell Calvanico to “get out of my room.”

She said she didn’t hear signs of a struggle but that she did hear a rustling coming from her roommate’s bed.

Naval Criminal Investigative Service Agent Michelle Robinson testified that DNA from both midshipmen was found on the inside and outside of a pair of boxer shorts Calvanico had been wearing that night.

Under questioning by the defense, Robinson said Calvanico’s DNA was not found on a vaginal swab of the accuser or on any of the blankets, sheets or clothes. Robinson also said no bruises or cuts were found on the accuser’s genitals.

4 comments:

Federal Judge Says Jurors Should’ve Weighed Sentence in Kiddie Porn Case.Prosecutors vowed to appeal a child pornography sentencing that's sure to raise eyebrows in New York's legal community. U.S. District Judge Jack Weinstein was supposed to sentence pizza-maker Pietro Polizzi to a mandatory minimum of five years for downloading thousands of child porn images. Instead, Weinstein tossed out the harsher charge and sentenced Polizzi to one year and one day.Weinstein justified the move by saying that he erred in not letting jurors consider the length of time Polizzi would serve in prison if convicted. Despite a "mountain of caselaw" against informing juries of potential sentences so they can focus on the facts of a case, Weinstein reportedly ruled that sentence considerations were important in this case because Polizzi, a 54-year-old father of five had been raped as a child.After jurors convicted Polizzi, Judge Weinstein polled the panel and asked them if they would have convicted had they known the severity of the sentence. Many reportedly said no and thought Polizzi, who claimed to be downloading porn to research his past, should get treatment not prison time.

A female Naval Academy freshman died 5 May 2008 after being found unconscious in her room.The cadet's roommates found her in her bed, not breathing, in early morning.She was taken to Anne Arundel Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead at 1246.The cause of death is under review. Foul play is not suspected.“The Naval Academy is deeply saddened by this sudden and tragic loss," Naval Academy Superintendent VADM Jeffrey L. Fowler stated. "Our deepest sympathies and condolences go out to this midshipman’s family.”The identification of the 4/c midshipman is being withheld.

Homosexual Senior Navy Midshipman Michael Pollard was sentenced to six years in the brig, with one year suspended under a pre-trial plea bargaining agreement, for child pornography after his court-martial conviction on 4 August 2008.

Cadet Pollard says he was afraid to seek help for his sexual addiction.

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